Posted on 02/11/2005 10:55:36 AM PST by Jim Robinson
The shot heard around the Internet has been fired on FreeRepublic.com The owner Jim Robinson and his moderators have launched a sniper style purge against members that disagree with the President’s ‘guest worker’ amnesty or support more control of illegal immigration. Free Republic is an amazing tool for those looking for a good debate and news from around the country.
The problem for the administration of the site is that their creation is allowing the participants to learn that the Bush immigration record and plans are shockingly out of line with the views of most conservatives. The management’s answer to this conflict between the majority of conservatives and the influence of the White House on their Web site has become electronic executions and censorship.
Members and readers of Free Republic would be surprised to know that many members of their community have fallen silent on the discussions about illegal immigration lately because free speech is an illusion on FR.com. They are silent because they have been banned from the Web site without warning, cause, or explanation in most cases. For weeks the moderators have been suspending and banning new members that chimed in quickly on the immigration debates.
Now this trend has broadened as the first groups of long-term users were suspended or banned this past week. Although Robinson and his staff removed many members of the Free Republic community in the first few days of the purge, those that religiously support President Bush’s immigration plan, open borders and approve of public benefits for illegal aliens remain on the forum. Those that were banned were the members that wanted more done to control illegal immigration and a strict observance to the President’s Oath of Office.
In fact, if Manuel Lopez Obrador becomes the next president of Mexico-which is a distinct possibility-I see things getting a lot worse.
So, now you're defending illegal immigration.
I see that you are also seemingly in favor of a national ID card.
In favor of anything that would have the authorities saying "documents!" to citizens...right Willie?
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Yikes. Take it easy.
Yes, civil manner. That is the point. This is a civil website with civil people. These miscreant immigrant bashers need to remember that. We are a nation of immigrants and we need to treat all immigrants and discussions in a civil manner.
My only point was that this problem, despite the best efforts of the open borders lobby, is not going away.
Even if the scale of social benefit programs is curtailed-and I can't envision that occurring, either-there will still be millions of people who want to enter the United States, both legally and illegally.
No, I saying that you have no proof that it was illegal.
With respect to #2164, only if they are legal, not criminal.
To be perfectly honest, I've witnessed just as many-if not more-FReepers who are opposed to reasonable immigration restrictions behave in that manner.
Oh,I certainly agree with that. I would say it is the larger of the two evils.
But the facts are that the immigration issue draws some strange bedfellows together.
We had a incident in our FR group in Arkansas recently. We were infiltrated because of the shared concerns and some did not catch it until it was too late. Unfortunately, saw it coming but could not prove my contention and simply backed out of the group until the stuff hit the fan. I don't know if I did the right thing. I blame myself for not speaking out because I did not want to get into a personal confrontation. The problem, hopefully is behind us bit the damage was very devastating to our group. It is a issue we must address.
It is a dicey thing to do however.
"Free Republic Open Border Lobby". It is a name given to people who don't take the Buchanan/Tancredo/Malkin approach to immigration. None are really for "open borders" but the members who are obsessed with the issue think that if they don't agree with their position 100% then you're for total "open borders".
The area belonged to Mexico, and the Mormons moved into it not with the permission of the Mexican government, but rather at the direction of Brigham Young.
I think FR is at a point in time where a decision should be made. Is FR going to be a conservatice voice of freedom and independent thinking, or is it going to be a Republican platform?
I am a registered Republican but I vote independent. In the last election that happened to work out to 100% Republican. In the next, I will again vote for the best man, or who I think is the best man.
There is a lot to like about George Bush, but he is also doing some things which many of us think are simply wrong.
Kindly point out who the members of this "open borders lobby" are.
Hypocrisy, anyone?
You are right about that. That's why I support the President's guest worker plan. We need to give these immigrants legal status or legal protection at least so they can do the jobs Americans won't do that are vital to our economy without fear of people like Mr. Gheen and his ALIPAC. It makes me ashamed to see people that want to mistreat immigrants that work so hard.
Show us the law where Mexico prohibited the Mormons from entering Arizona, Luis.
We're back to Hillary again. No conservative is going to vote for her no matter what she says because she's not believable. So that leaves us with pro-border conservatives like Tancredo, who you blast constantly.
You're trying to have it both ways, no matter what politician, left or right calls for clamping down on the border you oppose them but you find different reasons for doing so.
If you favor open borders fine but you'll never convince most of us. After 35 of years of Ted Kennedy's "destroy America" plan we need a timeout.
My only point was that "amnesty" is an incredibly misguided-at best-concept.
I don't blame Ronald Reagan for attempting to enact this scheme in 1986-when the detrimental effects it would have on our country were not yet manifest-but I don't see why we would want to repeat one of the most colossal blunders in U.S. history.
I'm sorry that you consider those 4 points a mess, racist, fascist, and anti-business. They are anti-illegal immigration, not anti-immigration. There is a world of difference there.
I don't follow the logic or meaning of your statement, I believe you aren't thinking this all the way through and I truly feel you need to learn some more about what's going on.
Perhaps you'd like to come visit me for a month...?
I'm not convinced we need to restrict immigration, but we do need to register these people so we know who they are. A guest worker program would do that. That way we can separate between those that just want to work and others that might be bad news for America. President Bush is absolutely right about this and I support him 100%
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